Thursday, July 30, 2009

Sarah's Birthday and a Cricket game




So this past weekend end was quite jammed packed. Friday night was the booze cruise, Saturday was Sarah's birthday and Sunday was cricket of course, what else do you do on a Sunday?

We went to Sarah's birthday dinner at RedRock. We hired out a driver and took 15 people up to the restaurant and ate the best food we have had on the island so far. We had some drinks, great conversation... I can't say enough about this place, it is literally paradise.



We had a tree lined "roof" the restaurant is outside on the sand.. Just wonderful!



So cricket... it was the first international cricket game played in Dominica in over 30 years. They played Bangladesh. About 8 of us headed out early Sunday morning. The game started at 9am but we didn't make it down until 10am, it was in Roseau which is about an hour with these roads. Anywhere you go around here you have to take a transport but all of them seemed to be packed due to the game, it's like the whole island shut down. So on the way down me, mark and 3 of our friends hopped into a VERY small pick up and hit the road. Junior (the delivery driver from my job) drove us down. I had to sit on Mark's lap in the front with my feet on the dash, it wasn't safe but we got there! When we got there the first thing on the agenda, figure out what the heck cricket is. It took quite a bit of time for us to even get somewhat of a clue of what we were watching. There are only 2 guys from one team on the field that are "batting" and they stay out there until they get out. (this is seriously ridiculous if you ask me.) The one guy was at bat for 192 minutes, I mean really, is that necessary!! Anyway, we soon came to the realization that everyone on the team bats and the game isn't over until both teams bat.... hello... can you say an ALL DAY event.... I really wish someone would have told me sooner. We sat in the stands that the republic of china so kindly built for the folks of Dominica to use and I have no idea how long it took for this match to actually come here compared to when it was built, for 6 hours before we called it quits. The stadium was impressive for this island but I have to be honest, every single one of you reading this in the states would have something to say about a professional sport being played in a "high school "stadium. All the vendors were out selling chicken and roasted plantains (our favorite!). I have over a year left on the island and I already miss roasted plantains and being able to pull over on the side of the road and buy one from a lady with her 5 kids using a grill made out of a bucket sitting under a kubuli umbrella. (side note: kubuli is a local beer on the island, pretty tasty.) Ok, sorry, back to cricket. The game ended up finishing after nine hours of play. We bailed after 6 of them. It was an experience but I am not certain I will be an avid cricket watcher. However I did find myself stopping on the cricket channel last night. I can say Australia and England are more exciting to watch then Bangladesh and West Indies. Getting home was an experience in itself. It took a good amount of time trying to find a transport that was running. Mark finally saw a driver that the school uses to bus the students to and from an annex building and convinced him to let us ride back with him. It was a long day!








List of Random things to do:
1. attend a cricket match (check)














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